Study Finds Some Water Quality Improvements In Choptank River
The Chesapeake Bay has a long history of nutrient pollution resulting in degraded water quality. However, scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Horn Point Laboratory are reporting some improvements in the Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
“The data presented here indicate that public and industrial investments in reductions of atmospheric emissions and upgrades to wastewater treatment plants have improved estuarine water quality in the Choptank,” said University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Professor Emeritus Tom Fisher.
For the last 20 years, scientists have worked with farmers, wastewater treatment plant operators, government agencies, and water quality groups to encourage conservation efforts and to discern trends in water quality in the Choptank basin. In this study, scientists evaluated whether the total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the Ches
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CAMBRIDGE, MD (January 26, 2021) The Chesapeake Bay has a long history of nutrient pollution resulting in degraded water quality. However, scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science are reporting some improvements in the Choptank River on Maryland s Eastern Shore.
The Choptank is a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, and its watershed lies primarily in the state of Maryland, with a portion in Delaware. There are strong similarities between the Choptank basin and the Chesapeake as a whole, which enables the Choptank to be used as a model for progress in the Bay.
The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary which has undergone considerable water quality degradation from human impacts and nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants from the air and land that have impaired use of receiving waters for drinking and recreation, and result in algal blooms and hypoxia. Algae blooms occur downstream in the Choptank and Chesapeake, blocking sunlight and reducing oxygen after